Sunday, January 18, 2015

Zbyszek Cynkutis* made a wonderful analogy to the energy that can manifest in artistic work: dropping stones into the water and the rings arise.

"You may think that the most interesting moment is when the stone is thrown. Powerful, yes, but perhaps not the most interesting. The most interesting is the circles that arise from this action - this energy creating more energy moving outward." Cynkutis, 1984

Although producers are often hoping for an easily graspable sound bite of who you are, I choose my projects not to clarify an image of myself but to expand star-shaped as far as is possible. So I began and so I continue: The Kurdish Storytelling Project, Living Myth Events, Millennium Labyrinth, Storying a Landscape, Storytelling and the Art of Play, Cynkutis Book Project....

I am looking to find not just skipping stones, but stones with a love of the depths that can bring expanding circles. I say this as much to state it as to encourage myself forward. This is not a clear path to monetary success and its value has to be sourced again and again.

We choose what to support - and what we feel will create rings - create energy. Give your deepest dreams trajectory - let the circles begin.

* I studied with Zbigniew Cynkutis, an actor with the Polish Laboratory Theater of Poland, in 1986. I have been working on a writing about his work and approach for many years. I call it "Cynkutis Book Project" it has accompanied me on my journey to create an original piece in this way entitled: RESTRAINTS. I was aided in the development of this piece by his widow and collaborator. My dear friend Jolanta Cynkutis.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

I love to sing and this moment was captured at dinner with friends during the December 2014 holidays. No picture, no one wanted a camera to spoil the moment. There is just a discreet close-up of the holiday tablecloth as I sing "La Vie En Rose" accompanied by my husband Tom Megan on accordion.

A brief aside: We visited Edith Piaf's grave in Paris several years ago on exactly the same day- December 27th! Among the famous graves at the Pere La Chaise cemetery in Paris were Jim
Morrison's, Oscar Wilde's and Edith Piaf's. To Jim Morrison's grave,
people brought candles and they were burning brightly, Oscar Wilde's
large and ornate grave was adorned with the heavily lipsticked kisses of
hundred's of admirers and on the "little swallow", Edith Piaf's, grave
were left long stemmed roses.

About Me

I guess you could say that I am an eclectic artist. I could never decide whether to go into visual arts or theatre so perhaps it is no surprise that my work ends up being in image-based performance. Whether it is storytelling where the image is suspended on words and breath or alternative theatre which is non-narrative and works with the juxtaposition of images, I am fascinated with the realm of the IMAGination...